If this is it for the Golden Era of Rangers baseball — if the team misses out on the postseason and if things change dramatically in the off-season then those three words will be the epitaph.

This wasn’t the World Series, but it happened again in a 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay on Wednesday night at a time when the Rangers are fighting and clawing just to hold on to a berth for a one-game play-in date. With an excellent opportunity to put a little space between themselves and the rest of the teams in the wild card race, the Rangers fumbled, bumbled and ultimately lost on Desmond Jennings’ game-ending single.

Off struggling rookie Joseph Ortiz? Yeah, that’s right. Ortiz.

It came an inning after closer Joe Nathan failed twice with two strikes and two outs to close out the win by allowing a walk, a steal and a game-tying single.

“I felt good about the situation with Joe on the mound,” manager Ron Washington said. “We just didn’t get it shut down. We just didn’t close it out.”

So, instead of being up on everybody, the Rangers go into the series finale, facing lefty Matt Moore — who has not allowed them a run in two career starts — holding on to a playoff berth by the thinnest of margins. The Rays lead the wild card race by a game over the Rangers. Cleveland, which lost to Kansas City on Wednesday, trails the Rangers for the second spot by a half-game. And Baltimore is just one game back of the Rangers.

Wednesday’s loss was reminiscent of other sickening moments in the Rangers’ star-crossed last couple of seasons. Of course, there were the failed two-strike opportunities to close out Game 6 of the World Series in 2011. That was supposed to be shored by getting a reliable veteran closer in Nathan, the most efficient ever.

Nathan blew only three saves last season. One of them came on Sept. 30 when he gave up a two-out, two-run double to Los Angeles’ Torii Hunter that forced the Rangers to need a win in Oakland in the final series of the season to clinch the division.

On Wednesday, he suffered his third blown save of this season, again with two outs. He got the two toughest hitters in the Tampa Bay lineup — Evan Longoria and Wil Myers — quickly, then walked Matt Joyce on a full count. Freddy Guzman replaced him and stole second.

He scored when David DeJesus singled on a 2-and-2 slider.

“I didn’t throw a bad pitch,” Nathan said. “He didn’t hit it great, but he hit it enough to get it through the infield.”

Nathan’s issue was hardly the only mistake of the night by a Rangers team that just kept fumbling opportunities to put away Tampa Bay .

The Rays’ first two runs came on a two-out, sixth-inning homer by Sean Rodriguez off Derek Holland. It came on a 1-0 fastball immediately after rookie Jurickson Profar, who was playing second base, failed to complete a double play. He took the flip from shortstop Elvis Andrus in a weird spot, then had to throw across his body and yanked the throw wide.

When the homer sailed out of the park, Profar put his glove over his head in embarrassment.

“I didn’t put myself in a good position to make the throw,” he said. “And I put my team in a bad position.”

“That play didn’t have anything to do with what happened next,” Holland said. “I just made a bad pitch.”

And after two of the more reliable pitchers on the staff had allowed Tampa Bay to tie things up, what could be expected of Ortiz, who has been ineffective since a nice three-week run to start the season?

Turns out not much.

The Rangers went to him over Neftali Feliz to start the 12th because, Washington said, Ortiz’s changeup would cause problems for the hitters due up early in the inning. Only one problem: When he got to two strikes, Ortiz didn’t throw the changeup. He threw a fastball to Jose Lobaton who singled up the middle.

And after a sacrifice bunt, he threw another to Jennings.

It’s becoming an all-too-familiar refrain for the Rangers.

Catch Evan Grant’s Ranger Reports all season on The Ticket (KTCK-1310 AM) on Tuesdays at 9:35 a.m. with The Musers, Wednesdays at 4:15 p.m. with The Hardline and Thursdays at 2:15 p.m. with BaD Radio.

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.